Jenin: Aid Agencies Urge Rescue of People Buried Alive Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Mark Graffis Palestinian couple buried alive for a week is recovering By MOHAMMED DARAGMEH, Associated Press NABLUS, West Bank (April 14, 2002 4:09 p.m. EDT) - As fighting raged in the streets of the West Bank city of Nablus, an Israeli army bulldozer moved in and demolished a building, sending it crashing down on an apartment next door, where Abdallah and Shams Shobi lived with their extended family. The collapsing building killed eight members of the Shobi family, and left Abdallah, 68, and his wife Shams, 65, trapped in a darkened, rubble-filled room on the ground floor with nothing to eat or drink but a single bottle of water. They could move around within the room, but were stuck for a week without light or fresh air and did not know the fate of their relatives. They frequently lost track of their water bottle in the darkness, and after four days, the water ran out. By Friday morning, after being entombed for seven days, they had almost given up hope of making it out alive, Abdallah said. "There was no fresh air, it was hard to breathe and I realized we were going to die. I told my wife to prepare to die," he said, adding that they began to pray. Hours later, they heard knocking on the ceiling - the sound of Palestinian rescue workers clearing through rubble. The rescuers found the bodies of other family members on the floor above, then punched a hole in the ceiling and pulled Abdallah and Shams to safety. Onlookers cheered as the pair emerged from the pile of fractured concrete and dust, and rescuers greeted them with kisses. Both were suffering from severe dehydration and initially had trouble breathing, and Shams also had cuts on her leg, said Dr. Anan Masri, at the Al Watani hospital in Nablus. The collapse killed Abdallah Shobi's older brother, Omar Shobi, 85, and two of Omar's grown daughters as well as a son and daughter-in-law and their three sons, ages 4 to 8. The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of the collapse of the Shobi family compound, adding that army engineers were present when homes were demolished to guard against damage to neighboring buildings. Israel launched a major offensive in the West Bank on March 29, following a series of Palestinian suicide bombings. The army has used armored bulldozers to knock down homes holding suspected militants and to clear paths in the narrow streets of Nablus and nearby Jenin so that tanks and armored personnel carriers can pass. * source - Bill Koehnlein Financial Times - April 17, 2002 http://www.ft.com Agencies urge rescue of living buried in Jenin by James Drummond Aid agencies said on Wednesday that there were still people alive beneath the enormous mound of rubble that was the centre of the Jenin refugee camp, suggesting that the Israeli army may have bent all recognised rules of warfare during its operation here. Humanitarian workers said the situation in the centre of this West Bank city, about the size of three soccer pitches, was akin to an earthquake. They are desperate for the Israeli authorities to give permission to civil defence teams with dogs and locating devices to start work in the camp. The agencies were also asking the Israeli army to lift the curfew in force throughout Jenin on Wednesday and for support in the form of equipment and food and medical supplies. But on the ground there was little evidence of a relaxation of the army's control. There was still occasional shooting in Jenin as army foot patrols ordered all but humanitarian workers out and drove Palestinians back to their homes. "This is a crisis; this is real devastation. We know that there are people trapped under the rubble," Richard Cook, the director of the United Nation's refugee operations in the West Bank, said as he carried out an initial survey. "But we have to go very, very carefully, partially because of the wounded and partially because of the unexploded ordnance." His colleague, Saleh Ismail, a structural engineer, estimated that between 300 and 400 dwellings had been demolished in the centre of the camp. The circumstances surrounding the demolitions remain highly controversial. Palestinian residents are adamant that no warning was given before houses were bulldozed with people inside. The Israeli army insists that instructions to leave were broadcast. It may be that after the intense fighting, in which hundreds are known to have been killed or injured and after a strict curfew was enforced over eight days, many residents were simply too scared to come out, even if they understood what was happening. Teams from the Red Crescent were working to clear bodies that could be found in the camp. One group removed a body from what is now the main access to the Saha, the devastated centre of the camp. The corpse had been run over so many times by tanks and other vehicles that it was not recognisably human. Only the stench and the flies buzzing around the soaked blankets gave away the fact that it had once been somebody. Another question now occupying the minds of diplomats and others is what has happened to the wounded. Of the 14,000 registered refugees from Jenin only 4,000 have so far been accounted for by the UN. Many of the camp's residents - now refugees for a second time - are staying in the peaceful farming villages on the Megiddo plain, north of Jenin. Others are still detained by the Israeli army. But the gap between the missing and those known to be alive is worryingly large. Dr Muhammed Abu Ghali, the director of Jenin hospital, who was leading the rescue teams, said the Israeli army had allowed out the wounded only on the first two days of the operation. Nearby loomed the mountain of rubble that had once been the commercial heart of this devastated place. "That is not a mound of earth. It's a mass grave," Dr Abu Ghali said. ********************************************************************* "The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated." --José Martí ********************************************************************* The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory http://www.toplab.org ********************************************************************* ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytmid-04.18.02-03:16:20-29698